.A. DEPOSIT 

OF 

AGRICULTURAL flint implements 



FOUND 



IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 



BY CHARLES RAIL 



FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
WASHINGTON, D. C, FOR THE YEAR 1868. 




WASHINGTON: 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
NOV., 1869. 



A DEPOSIT OF AGEICULTUEAL FLINT' IMPLEMENTS IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. 



BY CHARLES RAIL 




In an article published in the Smithsonian report for 1863 I gave, for the first 
time, an account and drawings of certain North American flint implements of 
large size and superior workmanship, which were evi- 
dently used by the aborigines for cultivating the soil 
and other digging purposes, and hence, according to 
their shape, classified by me as shovels and hoes. The 
annexed figures represent both kinds of implements. 
I described the shovels (Fig. 1) as oval plates of flint, 
flat on one side and slightly convex on the other, the 
outline being chipped into a sharp edge. The speci- 
men here figured measures above a foot in length, a 
little more than five inches in its greatest breadth, and 
is about three-quarters of an inch thick in the middle. 
Others are narrower and not quite as heavy. The 
shape of the hoes is illustrated by Fig. 2. This speci- 
men is seven and a half ^ 
inches long, nearly six 
inches wide, and about 
half an inch thick in 
the middle. The roun- 
ded part forms a sharp 
edge. The material 
of which these imple- 
ments are made is a 
peculiar kind of bluish, 
gray or brownish flint, 
of slightly conchoidal 
fracture, and capable 
of splitting into large flat fragments. I never 
succeeded in discovering this stone in situ. The 
agricultural implements of my collection were nil 

found in St. Clair county in southern Illinois, ^Mmb*w&MSr 
with the exception of one shovel, which was dug up in 1SG1 in St. Louis, during 
the construction of ear thworks for theprotection of the city. Both shovels and 
hoes were, doubtless, attached to handles, those of the latter probably forming 
a right, or even an acute angle with the stone blade, which is always provided 
with two notches in the upper part to facilitate the fastening.* 

* I quoted a passage from Du Praiz, which is, perhaps, referable to the hoes. According 
to this author, the natives of Louisiana had invented a hoe, (pioche) with the aid of whk h 
they prepared the soil for the culture of maize. "These hoes," he says, " are shaped like a 
capital L ; they cut with the edge of the lower part, which is entirely flat.*' — Histoire de In 
Louisiane, Paris, 1758. Vol. II, p. 176. 

Plato XXI, in vol. II of De Bry, (Frankfort, 1591,) represents Florida Indians of both 
sexes engaged in field labor, the men using the hoe and the women sowing. The Latin text 
(by Le Moyne) accompanying the engraving states that the hoes are made of fish-bone, 
(ligonts e piscium ossibus) and provided with wooden handles. The women sow beans and 
jnaize — ' ' feminai falrns milium, site Mayzum serunt." 




4 



DEPOSIT OF AGRICULTURAL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



Some of the shovels, like the specimen of which a drawing is given, measure 
a foot and more in length, and consequently are among the largest flint tools 
thus far discovered in any part of the world. Neither the rude hatchet-like and 
lanceolate implements found in the " drift " of France and England, associated 
with the osseous remains of the mammoth, the rhinoceros, and other animals of a 
bygone fauna, equal them in size ; nor have, to my knowledge, the caves of the 
reindeer period in southern France and Belgium, once the resorts of savage hunt- 
ing tribes, yielded any chipped flint articles of the same dimensions, "indeed, 
they are rivaled, as I think, only by the large flint celts of Scandinavia and 
northern Germany, which belong to a more advanced stage of the European 
stone age. 

That the North American flint tools described by me were really used for dig- 
ging can hardly be doubted. " If the shape of these implements," I stated in 
my account, " did not indicate their original use, the peculiar traces of wear 
which they exhibit would furnish almost conclusive evidence of the manner in 
which they have been employed ; for that part with which the digging was done 
appears, notwithstanding the hardness of the material, perfectly smooth, as if 
glazed, and slightly striated in the direction in which the implement penetrated 
the ground." I further mentioned that this peculiar feature is common to all 
specimens of my collection as well as to the few which I have seen in the hands 
of others j and that they seem to be rather scarce, and merely confined to certain 
States bordering on the Mississippi river. 

I was, therefore, much interested in the recent discovery of a large deposit of 
such implements at East St. Louis, (formerly Illinoistown,) in St. Clair county, 
Illinois, a place situated directly opposite the city of St. Louis, in the so-called 
" American Bottom," which forms a fertile plain extending for a considerable 
distance along the Mississippi shore in Illinois. This region, I must state, is 
very rich in Indian remains of various descriptions,* but particularly interesting 
on account of numerous artificial mounds, among which the celebrated truncated 
pyramid called Cahokia Mound, or Monk's Mound, is by far the most conspicuous, 
reminding the beholder of those gigantic structures in the valley of the Nile, 
which the rulers of Egypt have left to posterity as tokens of their power and their 
pride. 

The particulars of the discovery to which I alluded were communicated to me by 
Dr. John J. R. Patrick, of Belleville, Illinois, a gentleman to whom I am greatly 
indebted for long-continued co-operation in my pursuits relative to the subject of 
American antiquities. As soon as Dr. Patrick heard of the discovery he hastened 
to East St. Louis, for the purpose of ascertaining on the spot all details concern- 
ing the occurrence of those flint tools 5 and in order to obtain still more minute 
information, he afterwards repeated^ revisited the place of discovery which is about 
14 miles distant from Belleville, and can be reached after a short ride, the latter 
place being connected by railroad with East St. Louis. The removal of ground 
in extending a street disclosed the existence of the deposit, and Dr. Patrick 
derived all facts concerning its character from Mr. Sullivan, the contractor of the 
street work, who was present when the tools were exhumed, and therefore can 
be considered as a reliable authority. The results of my informant's inquiries, 
communicated in various letters addressed to me^ are contained in the following 
account : 

In the early part of December 1868, some laborers, while engaged in grading 

an extension of Sixth street in East St. Louis, came upon a deposit of Indian 

relics, consisting of flint tools, all of the hoe and shovel type, and of small fossil 

marine shells, partly pierced, and in quantity about equal to the contents of a 

bushel. Close bv were found several boulders of flint and Greenstone, wei^hins 
" 0/00 

* Some years ago I discovered near East St. Louis the traces of an Indian pottery, de- 
scribed in the Smithsonian report for 1866. 



DEPOSIT OF AGRICULTURAL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



5 



from 15 to 30 pounds each, and many fragments of flint. The soil in the imme- 
diate neighborhood is composed of black loam, overlying a stratum of a sandy 
character, and the deposit which occurred in the latter, was covered with from 18 
to 24 inches of the black earth, bearing a luxuriant turf on its surface. Accord- 
ing to the contractor's statement, the flint tools, the shells, and the boulders were 
deposited in three separate holes dug out in the sand, but not more than a foot 
apart from each other, and placed like the corners of a triangle. To use his lan- 
guage, the implements formed a ''nest" by themselves, and so did the shells, 
and likewise the boulders. The flint tools, however, instead of being packed 
close together, like the shells and the boulders, were arranged with some regu- 
larity, overlapping each other or standing edgewise, and covering a circular space. 
The whole deposit did not extend more than seven or eight feet on either side. 
The contractor neglected to count the implements, but he thinks there were from 
70 to 75 in all ; some 50 hoes and about 20 shovels. No other stone articles, 
such as arrow and spear-heads, tomahawks, &c, had been deposited with the 

agricultural implements. The lattei 
were soon taken away by persons from 
the place, attracted by the novelty ol 
the occurrence, and it is to be regret- 
ted that many, if not most of them, 
have fallen into the hands of individu- 
als who are unable to appreciate their 
value. But this is usually the case 
when discoveries of similar character 
are made. Dr. Patrick examined 
upwards of 20 of the flint implements, 
and found that none of them had been 
used, as they had not received the 
slightest polish on the cutting edge. 

The place of discovery lies about a 
mile and a half, or still further, fromthe 
Mississippi, on elevated ground, and 
above ordinary high- water mark ; but 
formerly, before the bed of the river 
was narrowed by the dike connect- 
ing the Illinois shore with Bloody 
Island, the distance cannot have been 
more than half a mile. The spot is 
situated nearly midway between two 
mounds, half a mile apart from each 
other. One of them was formerly 
used as a graveyard by the French of 
the neighborhood, and the other serves 
as the substructure for a dwelling-house. The accompanying plan (furnished by 
my correspondent) gives a view of the locality. 

Several of the agricultural implements found at East St. Louis are now in my 
possession. Their material is a yellowish-brown variety of the flint to which I 
already referred. In shape they correspond with the tools of the same class 
previously described by me j most of the shovels, however, instead of having the 
end opposite the cutting part worked into a rounded edge, (like Fig. 1,) termi- 
nate in a more or less acute angle. The edges of all are chipped with the 
utmost regularity, and exhibit not the slightest wear, which proves that the 
implements were in a perfectly new condition when buried in the ground. 

The fossil shells of marine origin are all small univalves, and belong almost 
entirely to the genus melampus. Of nearly 300 specimens sent to me by Dr. 
Patrick, 19 only represent other genera, namely, columbella, marginella. coitus, 




6 



DEPOSIT OF AGRICULTURAL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



and bulla. All have a decayed and chalky appearance. They were probably 
obtained in the neighborhood, and obviously destined for ornamental 
purposes. This may be inferred from the fact that a number of the 
mdampiis shells are pierced with one hole in the lower part, (Fig. 3, 
natural size, > which was sufficient for stringing them, as the connecting 
thread could easily be passed through the natural aperture of the shelf. 
On close examination I found that these shells had been reduced, by 
grinding, to greater thinness at the place of perforation, in order to 
facilitate the process of piercing. 

The boulders, which formed a part of the deposit, were probably designated 
for the manufacture of implements. A piece of one of the boulders was lent to 
me for examination. It is a compact diorite, the material of which many ground 
articles of the North American Indians, such as tomahawks, chisels, pestles- &c. 
are made. 

It would be useless to speculate on the antiquity of the objects thus acciden- 
tally discovered, for there are no indications for determining, even approximately 
the period when they were buried. It is far easier to account for the motives 
which induced the owners of the tools and the other objects to dispose of them 
in the manner described. Their object was, in all probability, to hide them. 
Perhaps they left the place with a view to return and to take possession again 
of their concealed property, but were prevented from carrying out their intention 
Or, they may have buried them in time of war, when thev were killed, driven 
away, or led into captivity ; and their "hidden treasure" lay undisturbed in the 
ground, perhaps for centuries, until the spade of the Irish laborer -brought it to 
light again. There is no room whatever for the supposition that this" deposit 
constituted one of those religious offerings by which the ancient inhabitants of 
the Mississippi valley believed they couid gratify or propitiate the powers that 
ruled their destinies. 

Similar deposits of flint articles have repeatedly been discovered in the United 
States,* and Messrs. Squier and Davis mention several instances of this kind in 
their work entitled u Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." The most 
extensive accumulation described by them occurred in one of the so-called sacri- 
ficial mounds of " Clark's Work," on North Fork of Paint creek, Eoss county, 
Ohio. This mound contained, instead of the altar usually found in this class of 
earth-structures, an enormous number of flint disks standing on their edo-es and 
arranged in two layers one above the other, at the bottom of the mound. ^The 
whole extent of these layers has not been ascertained ; but an excavation six 
feet long and four broad disclosed upwards of six hundred of those disks, rudely 
blocked out of a superior kind of grayish striped flint. I had occasion to exam- 
ine the specimens formerly in the collection of Dr. Davis, and have now a num- 
ber of them in my own collection, which were sent to me from Ohio. They are 
either roundish, oval, or heart-shaped, and of various sizes, but on an average 
six inches long, four inches wide, and from three-quarters of an inch to an inch 
in thickness. They weigh not far from two pounds each. These flint disks are 
believed to have been buried as a religious offering, and the peculiar structure 
of the mound which inclosed themf rather favors this view. The disks, how- 
ever, represent no finished implements, but merelv flat pieces, rudely chipped 
around their edges, and destined, in all probability, to be wrought into more 
symmetrical forms. Thus it would rather seem that the contents of this mound 
constituted a kind of depot or magazine, from which supplies of flint could be 
drawn whenever there was a want of that material. Many of the disks under 
notice bear a striking resemblance to the flint " hatchets" discovered by Boucher 
de Perthes and Dr. liigollot in the diluvial gravels of the valley of the Somme, 

* Also in Europe. Deposits of flint arrow-heads, for instance, were found in Scotland.— 
Logan, " The Scottish GaeL" Lond., J83J., Vol. I, p. 339. 
t Ancient Monuments, &c , p. 158; drawings of tke'disks on p. 214. 




DEPOSIT OF AGRICULTURAL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



7 



in northern France.* The similarity in form, however, is the only analogy that 
can be claimed for the rude flint articles of both continents, considering that 
they occurred under totally different circumstances. The drift implements of 
Europe represent the most primitive attempts of man in the art of working stone, 
while the Ohio disks are the unfinished specimens of a race that constructed 
earthworks of amazing size, and was already highly skilled in the manufacture 
of weapons and tools of flint. 

Yet I little doubt but that implements analogous in shape as well as in asso- 
ciations to those of the drift of Europe, will be found also in America,- for indi- 
cations of the high antiquity of man on the latter continent are not wanting, and 
the similarity in the early condition of the human race in various parts of the 
globe becomes more and more manifest by the results of archaeological investi- 
gation. 

Another occurrence of flint disks is recorded in a notice by Dr. Hoy, published 
in Lapham's "Antiquities of Wis- 
consin/ 7 one of the Smithsonian vol- 
umes : " Some workmen, in digging 
a ditch through a peat swamp near 
Racine, found a deposit of disks of 
hornstone, about 30 in number. They 
were immediately on the clay, at the 
bottom of the peat, about two and 
a half feet below the surface. Some 
of the disks were quite regular $ they 
vary from half a pound to a pound 
in weight." A few of these are pre- 
served in the collection of the Smith- 
sonian Institution. 

About 1860, while I lived in St. 
Louis, a quantity of rudely-shaped 
flint articles of similar character were 
discovered close together on the bank 
of the Mississippi, between St. Louis 
and Carondelet. It is probable that 
the falling down of a part of the bank 
had exposed them to sight. I could 
not ascertain their number, but saw 
about eight of them, of which I ob- 
tained three. They are nearly all 
of the same size, oval in shape, and 
consist of whitish flint. Fig. 4 
represents one of my specimens in 
natural size. The original is seven- 
eighths of an inch thick in the mid- 
dle part. It is evident that they are. 
not implements in a state of comple- 
tion, but roughly-edged fragments, 
which were destined to be made into 
arrow and spear-heads at some future time. Their present convenient shape was 
doubtless given them for the sake of easier transportation and for saving space. It. 
is believed that flint can be chipped more readily after having been exposed 
for some time to the humid influence of the earth, and this may partly account 
for the practice of the aborigines of burying their supplies of flint in suitable places. 

* Implements very similar in shape to the Ohio disks were also found in the caves of 
Dordogne, especially that of Le Moustier. They are described and figured in the splendid 
iKork by Lartet and Christy, entitled " Reliquiae Aquitanicaa." 




8 



DEPOSIT OF AGRICULTURAL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



Returning to my former subject, I will observe that the occurrence of Indian 
flint tools whicli served for agricultural purposes is not more surprising than 
that of other stone implements indicating less peaceable pursuits 5 for it is known 
that many of the aboriginal tribes of North America raised maize and other nutri- 
tious plants before this continent was settled by Europeans.* The production 
of maize, indeed, must have been considerable. Mr. Gallatin has taken some pains 
to ascertain the area, east of the Rocky Mountains, and north of Mexico, over 
which cultivation extended. It was bounded on the east by the Atlantic; 
on the south by the Gulf of Mexico j on the west by the Mississippi, or, 
more properly, by the prairies. Towards the north the limits varied accord- 
ing to the climate ; but near the Atlantic the northern boundary of agriculture 
lay in the region of the rivers Kennebec and Penobscot. North of the Great 
Lakes agriculture was only found among the Hurons and some kindred tribes. 
The Ojibways, on the south of Lake Superior, and their neighbors, the Meno- 
monies, it appears, depended for vegetable food principally on the wild rice or 
wild oats, called folk avoine by the French.! The Iroquois tribes raised large 
quantities of Indian corn. In the year 1687, a corps under the command of the 
Marquis de Nonville made an invasion into the country of the Senecas, during 
which all their supplies of maize were either burned or otherwise spoiled, and 
the quantity thus destroyed is said to have amounted to 400,000 minots, or 
1,200,000 bushels.J Though this estimate may be somewhat exaggerated, it 
nevertheless shows that these tribes paid much attention to the cultivation of 
maize. 

The nations who inhabited the large territories formerly called Florida and 
Louisiana, probably obtained their food mostly from the vegetable kingdom. 
They cultivated chiefly maize, beans, peas, pumpkins, melons, and sweet pota- 
toes. Maize, however, was their principal produce. In the accounts of De 
Soto's expedition, not only frequent allusion is made to the extensive maize fields 
of the natives, but it may also be gathered from these relations that the army of 
De Soto would have starved without the supplies of Indian corn obtained from 
the inhabitants. These people laid up stores of that useful cereal, and among 
other facts it is mentioned that one of De Soto's officers found in one house 
alone, five hundred measures of maize ground to meal, besides a large quantity 
in grain. § But those southern tribes met by De Soto and his followers in the 
sixteenth century were the most advanced among the North American aborig- 
ines. No longer in the pure hunter state, but attached to the soil, they lived in 
large villages, consisting of dwellings more commodious than those of the ruder 
tribes, and paid generally more attention to the comforts of life than the latter. 

Adair, who spent during the last century many years as a trader in the dis- 
trict under notice, mentions that the French of "West Florida and the English 
colonists obtained from the Indians different sorts of beans and peas, with whicli 
they were before entirely unacquainted. They raised also a small kind of tobacco, 
differing from that in use among the French and English settlers. The women, 
he says, planted pumpkins and different species of melons in separate fields, at 
a considerable distance from the towns. || It is even probable that the former 
inhabitants cultivated fruit trees. Bartram, at least, found in Georgia and Ala- 
bama, on the sites of ancient Indian settlements, various kinds of trees, such as 

* Some of the facts mentioned in the following remarks were already given in my previous 
article, published in the Smithsonian report for 1863 ; I repeat them here, for the sake of 
greater completeness, in connection with some additional details bearing upon the same 
subject. Fur descriptions of the remarkable "garden-beds " of Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
Indiana, which indicate an ancient cultivation, I must refer to Schoolcraft, Lapham, and 
others. 

t Gallatin, Archseologia Americana, Vol. II, p. 149. 
t Documentary History of New York, Vol. I, p. 238. 

§ Garcilasso de la Vega, Conquete de la Floride. Leyden, 1731, Vol. I, p. 250. 
|| Adair, History of the American Indians. London, 1775, p. 408. 

BB 12.8 



DEPOSIT OF AGRICULTURAL FLINT IMPLEMENTS 9 

*Bartram's Travels. Dublin, 1793, p. 38 — • - 

tGarctiasso de la Ve g a, Conquete de la rioride, Vol. I, p. 286, and Vol.H, p . 389. 



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